Saint-Simonian Socialism

Yay, my first post over these boards ! :eek:

Anyway, first of all it's been awhile since I last practised my English, so feel free to correct my grammar horrors, should they pop up ;)

As we all know, Marxism and its later interpretation known as Marxism-Leninism dominated Socialist thought for at least a century: but what if the dominant Socialist variant was Saint Simonian Socialism ?
How could this have happened ?? And how would a Saint-Simonian version of the USSR look like ?? (we could have August Comte, founder of Positivism credited by Stuart Mill with the creation of "the most oppressive political ideals ever seen since the Jesuits" as TTL's Lenin and Brazil, where a bunch of positivistic officers in OTL dethroned the Emperor and put the Positivistic motto "Order and Progress" over the flag, as TTL'S Russia)
 

mojojojo

Gone Fishin'
When I first looked at the title of your thread I thought it was Saint Smilodon Socialism :p
 
I concur with those who suggested it'd be more tehnocratic. Hrmm.

The Catholicism is the problem with its adoption, IMO. But I could see it taking off in a Napoleonic Europe, although this is only after reading The Endless March of Folly.
 
I concur with those who suggested it'd be more tehnocratic. Hrmm.

The Catholicism is the problem with its adoption, IMO. But I could see it taking off in a Napoleonic Europe, although this is only after reading The Endless March of Folly.

Yep, WAY more technocratic :). Actually, Saint Simon developed a State where the three Montesquiean branches of power would fall in the hands of Central Bankers, Union Leaders and Scientists ! It would probably develop in a "Fascism-without-nationalism", though the positivistic influence could probably lead to eugenics. As for the Catholic issue, I don't think it would have been a major problem: Saint Simon regarded Christianity as the ancestor to Socialism, and called his major political book "A New Christianism". In fact, both he and Comte deeply admired the Middle Age's Church as a source of social integration (a malicious soul would say "of control" :D), to the point that later Comte structured his later Church of Humanity on the Catholic Church !
 
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